Does anyone have one of these? I’m pretty old school and like to read regular paper books. However, I am intrigued by the fact that I can go to libraries with this device, and read books for free. And I can basically read anything in print. Can I read magazines? Newspapers?
Also, should I hang on for the new release on November 5th? I’ve been reading reviews, and I’m thinking there is not much new to justify waiting, and paying more.
Thoughts?
I have one - I’m not that familiar with the library program, but you should definitely give it a shot. If you like magazines that are travel/fashion based - you’ll probably be disappointed - as any pics - will be black and white - and the experience isn’t just the same. If you like reading for the articles - it’s well worth taking a look.
If you are a prime member - you get one free book to rent a month (this is separate from the library thing I think you are talking about). Also - virtually every book (I think every) gives you a free chapter to download to see if you like before buying. I probably buy about 20-30% of those I sample.
It isn’t the same as a tablet (I have an ipad - and use that for the web and such), but as long as you are looking to read books, magazines, newspapers - I think you will be happy.
Plenty of people have issues with not having the physical book (to lend out, feel of the pages, sense of collecting, whatever). Most people get over it once they get one - and realize how great it is when you have to move, go on vacation, whatever - and don’t have to lug all that stuff around.
I have one and it is a miracle. I use it every day. I also have a bit of a self-control problem when it comes to buying books for it but that’s a personal problem. I don’t read library books on it, simple because I have so many other books that I’ve just never bothered to look into it.
I do read a lot of articles on it and I’ve read some issues of the New Yorker. It works great for that magazine because the New Yorker is 99% text and black & white cartoons, so it translates perfectly. Magazines that do more with photography or creative page layouts wouldn’t be so great (although the photos do come through fine in b&w.)
But I also read a lot of articles from around the net. There’s a browser extension you can install that adds a Send To Kindle function. When you’re reading an article online, you can click the Send to Kindle button and the page will be formatted just for text and then sent to your Kindle library for later reading. This is huge, for me. I read all sorts of articles that way and then I have them for future reference.
I’d say go ahead and wait and get the new model, just to put off that day when you will eventually need to upgrade anyway (happens with any device). It’s only a two week wait. That said, I have the original Paperwhite and I might not bother upgrading because it is already so perfect and I’ve got all my books categorized the way I want them and don’t want to have to do it again (another personal problem, of course.)
Oh, and don’t worry about getting the one with “special offers”. The ads are very unobtrusive and even occasionally useful if a book you want is on sale. They don’t appear on the text at all.
I was one of those people and have completely turned around in my opinion. I was worried about lending books to my niece but I’ve realized that the easiest thing to do when she gets a little older would be to just buy her her own Kindle that’s attached to my account, that way she could simply access everything I’ve acquired.
My mom reads every day. She’s had her touch kindle 2 years and is totally spoiled. I loaned her a hardback book to read and she stopped after a couple hours reading. Gave it back to me because it was too heavy. She’s got arthritis and holding up the weight of a hardback book bothers her.
I have a Kindle Keyboard (hey, Kindles have been around long enough to have old-school versions now!) and I love it, although I would have considered myself a hard-line physical book lover. I’ve had it for two and a half years now, and I’ve been thinking about the Paperwhite, because I think the brighter background is prettier, and because I’m not all that enamored of the keyboard.
The library feature is incredible. Details may depend on your library, but mine lets me check out six books at a time, for up to three weeks each. My library (perhaps like all libraries?) uses the Overdrive Media Console. It was very easy to set up, and it’s outrageously easy to use. When I check out books, I click on the download button, choose the Kindle format, and the link opens an Amazon page where I can click on a button to have the book sent to my Kindle via wi-fi. If I want to return a book early (almost always), I can do that through the “Manage my Kindle” page on Amazon, and that opens up another slot in my library account. The only drawback I’ve found is a somewhat limited availability of Kindle-format ebooks (there are a lot of them, but I’m impossibly demanding). When my library first started offering Kindle books, there were a few hiccups (it sometimes took a long time for a returned book to register on the library site), but those smoothed out wonderfully over six months or so.
You can read magazines and newspapers on the Kindle, but it’s not great for graphics. The smallish screen doesn’t really lend itself to those formats, either. Because I chose the Kindle specifically for its non-back-lit screen, I’m willing to overlook that, and I just read those things on my laptop instead. Oh, and that’s another bonus: you can read your Kindle books on up to three other devices as well. And there’s the “Cloud” reader, which lets you access your library from any computer. You do have to choose only one device to download your library books to, but any content you own can be accessed from any of the devices you’ve chosen.
My Kindle crashed once, but I was able to talk to an Amazon representative through a live chat, and she walked me through the process of restoring all my content. I had to re-create my “Collections” (a way to group the books), but otherwise it was seamless.
I’d recommend the Kindle pretty whole-heartedly, but I’d also like to hear some opinions from people who’ve upgraded to the Paperwhite from an older e-ink version.
Another yes vote from me. I’m on my 3rd Kindle - I had a problem with standing on things by accident - although the other two were older models, which had different names in the UK I think.
My Paperwhite is by far my favourite, but Kindle has changed my life in all sorts of little ways. Essentially I carry hundreds of books with me at all times (literally, it’s never more than a couple of feet away from me) which, since I have two small children just beginning to play independently is an absolute godsend. I can read on the bus, at the park, in queues, at the doctor’s office, on the plane etc etc. When I was still getting up in the middle of the night with my baby I found the built in light in the Paperwhite was just enough light to navigate by without waking her, too. I love it and I think it’s probably the only non-human thing I’d save from a fire. If nothing else, I’d have something to read whilst waiting for the firemen to clear the building.
My only complaint is that I can’t read it in the bath, but when I get round to getting a waterproof cover that’ll not be an issue. In the meantime, I have a bunch if paperbacks on rotation. I’ll never give up my physical books, I love them like children and rows of bookshelves make me happy (we moved to Singapore with 31 boxes of them and I know people have a lot more than that) but I only buy tree books for myself now if they’re very special.
Present! I prefer the Paperwhite by a long way - it’s thinner, lighter and lit better. I read some very mixed reviews and I guess some people did have some problems in the early release with patching of the ink, but I’ve honestly never seen that with mine. I found the lack of a physical page forward/back button a bit hard to get used to, but not enough to annoy me. Wholeheartedly recommend the upgrade if you were thinking about it, although I’m not sure the aesthetic considerations would have been enough on their own to get me to change (see my previous comment about standing on things - I really didn’t have a choice!) Very glad I did though.
I solved this by putting mine into a quart-sized Ziplock freezer bag. I don’t know if that would work on a model without the physical page-turn buttons, but it was a great solution for a weekend at the hot springs.
How do you turn pages? If it’s a swipe across the screen, is it hard to do one-handed? Does it happen by mistake often?
As for waiting until the old one is broken, I dropped mine pretty spectacularly early on, and the back cover has never quite fit properly since. On the occasions when I drop it now, I have to snap it back into place every time. I’m thinking I could justify replacing it just based on that at almost any time.
I’ve got a Kindle keyboard with the experimental browser which, though glacially slow, is totally free. When I heard about the new Paperwhites I was hoping the browser was the same, but evidently only Amazon and Wikipedia are accessible. Dang. I’ll probably get one anyway.
There are zones on the page that you touch to make it page forward and back, or you can swipe. I tend to touch to go forward and swipe to go back, which is easy to do with one hand. When you’re getting used to it, it does happen by accident a bit, but not too badly.
I’ve had a kindle keyboard, whatever the very cheapest one after the kindle keyboard was, and a kindle paperwhite. The paperwhite is by far the best - honestly much easier to read than a paperback book because you can read it in any light and it is way lighter. The physical page turn buttons are way better though - if they had a paperwhite with physical buttons this one would go bye bye right away. The biggest issue I have with it is in books with links of some sort, foot notes, that kind of thing - if they are in the page turn zone you can click them accidentally instead of turning the page. The other issue is that I am a lefty, and I used to turn the page with my left hand, but you can’t do that without reaching on the touch ones.
I got one for my wife and she loves it. She spends quite a bit on books and they’re disappointingly expensive (No paper, no distribution, no shipping and it’s still about the same price as the physical copy?).
That said, she just plows through books, so she doesn’t have to carry a bunch of them around anymore. Plus, a new book is literally seconds away.
And the nightlight is awesome.
Add me as another person who has one and loves it. As a matter of fact when I broke my Kindle Fire and was able to send it back it for a replacement; I asked for the Paper White instead. I’m still happy with that decision.
My Kindle Paperwhite is my favorite thing. I take it with me everywhere, and I use it every day. If I had to choose to lose every possession except one, I would choose to keep the Paperwhite. It really is like magic.
To be fair, I felt the same way about my Kindle Touch before I got the Paperwhite, but I like the Paperwhite even better. I’ve had it about a year. I routinely and annoyingly point out to my husband that I can now read ‘‘in any lighting conditions.’’ It has become a household joke. But it’s true. And awesome. I can read in pitch dark without disturbing my husband while he’s sleeping and there’s no glaring screen to hurt my eyes. I can read in the bright glare of sunlight. It’s not just an on/off backlight, it’s more like an adjustable glow light, so you can set it for perfect comfort no matter the lighting situation.
EVERY book is lightweight! I actually quit reading Under the Dome because the paper version was so ungainly - now I can read it with no problem. It’s so compact I just throw it in my purse before I leave the house.
I buy an absurd number of books now, but I always did that anyway… it’s just easier now that you can download them instantly. And more dangerous. I’m just warning you, if you take the plunge you’ll probably want to set up a Kindle budget. Also if you go to Project Gutenberg, you can get almost any classic for free. I’ve read everything from Gulliver’s Travels to The Island of Dr. Moreau, for free. I gave my husband my old Kindle Touch and since it’s linked to my account I can send any book I purchased to his Kindle at no cost. He’s reading Game of Thrones right now.
One other cool thing about e-books is that you’ll find a lot of Indie and self-published books, things that didn’t necessarily go mainstream but have a cult following. They are usually cheaper than the major publisher books, but you can find some wicked cool stuff. For example I recently discovered Hugh Howey’s science fiction masterpiece ‘‘Silo Saga’’ starting with Wool (and I just started the sequel, Shift.) It was like 6 bucks for a 500 page book.
My BeachBuoy is my second favorite thing I own. Thanks to this little waterproof case, I can take a bath by candlelight with my Kindle. I take evening baths to wind down so I also use this every day.
Oh my god, just go get one already!
I am on my third kindle. My father very kindly bought me the first model as a present, when they were $359. I used that for quite a while then I bought a Nook because it was smaller. I liked that fine, but I left it on a plane and it did not turn up in lost and found :(. Then I bought a Kindle keyboard, which I used heavily for several years until it started developing mechanical problems (various buttons kept activating themselves and it got in the way of reading).
So in the middle of September I ordered a Paperwhite and it got here a couple of weeks ago. They said they were issuing new models starting October 1, so I am a bit confused about another new model on November 5? I’m not seeing anything about that on Amazon’s website.
Anyway, I like it very much, but I still prefer the forward/back page buttons rather than touching the screen (although those were among the buttons that started to malfunction). I sometimes wonder how long before the screen-touch function goes haywire. In the meantime, I like the lighting which I have on all the time. I don’t try to read in the dark because I don’t need to, but I suppose there are situations when that might come in handy (the next time the power is out, I’ll probably give that a try).
I don’t have the 3G version, but the cheaper version seems to work fine with wi-fi if you have that available. Actually I prefer to browse and download on my computer, and then copy the files onto the Kindle. This gives me a chance to organize my library on my PC, which is easier for me.
tl;dr - I recommend it. Don’t forget to check out all the other sites besides Amazon where you can get free out-of-copyright literature, including lots of classics.
Roddy
As for ‘‘old school’’ paper-book devotees, I used to be one. That lasted until I read my first Kindle book. Now I whine if I have to buy a paper version because it’s not available on Kindle.
How do you organize your library on your PC? The one thing I don’t care for with the Kindle is how the books are organized, but I haven’t found a way to do that through my Amazon account.
I use a software program (sorry, I’m at work now and I can’t remember the name, it was recommended by someone here) that extracts the full titles and authors instead of the cryptic filenames; I believe you can also extract other items like category, publication date, etc. The default sort is by author, but I can do other sorts if I want.
Roddy
I started with a Kindle keyboard, which I loved well enough, but as soon as the Paperwhite came out I got one: the built-in backlight is the BOMB. I do 95% of my reading at night in bed, and I love being able to turn the bedside light off once I start reading. The other 5% of my reading is done on the couch, and I also love not needing a special light in the living room just for that.
I second both of these. I read quickly but don’t want tiny text on my screen, which means frequent page turns: I tend to hold the Kindle in my left hand, and a button somewhere on the left would be much more convenient than lifting my right arm every minute or so just so I can touch the screen. And the link/footnote thing has happened more than once.